The Three Rs for Multiple Ages

Sunday morning, I’m helping put his shoes on for church and he says it. “Mama! N is for no and Y is for yes!” And I realize then that it’s time. It’s time to teach four-year-old to read. Those gentle ways of reading. He’ll be the fifth one we’ll teach.

Of course the three Rs are each subjects children need individual attention in. And each of our children have math, English and writing studies specific to their grade level that we work on each school day. However, there are ways to enjoy teaching multiple ages together in these basics as well. And they’re fun!

The follow examples of reading, writing and math are only a few of many, many activities you can enjoy with all ages:

The Gentle Ways of Reading

Older ones helping younger ones learn to read – I often ask the older children to read to the younger ones. Six-year-old loves to read to four-year-old. Mother Goose is not only good for the littlest ones, the rhyming is perfect reading practice. Plus just fun. When it was time for third child to read, she wasn’t much interested in Dick and Jane. She loved Biscuit. She would go to bed with the Biscuit Storybook Collection. But here’s the beauty – her brother and sister would still sit and read to her. Teach her all they’d learned. Read from Hey I’m Reading with a little spark in their eyes. They remembered what fun it was to have the reading light switch on in their heads. Full post: The Gentle Ways of Reading

Read Alouds – of course this almost goes without mentioning but the benefits of reading aloud to the whole family are far-reaching. Even Mama learns something. Memories are made.

Games like Scrabble and Boggle Jr. are phonics and language practice. We’ll talk more about online games and apps next week.

Writing for an Age Range

Makinghomemade books – this is a creative project for older children or for the one learning to read.

Thank you notes – oh what a good practice this is – not only in letter writing but in gratitude. At Christmas we write a family thank you note – multiple ages – each one writing a line or two of thanks in one note to the recipient. The Art of Thank You Notes is full of simple ideas for gratitude, handwriting and art – for even the most reluctant writer.

Dictation around the table – youngest ones can sketch, older ones write – each according to their skill level. The 10 Days series at Fruit in Season is Copywork and Dictation – many ideas we hope to incorporate in our day.

Play-writing – sometimes for our Tapestry of Grace unit celebrations, the children write a play set in the time period we are studying. Some play a role, some perform the videography duties.

Math for Multiple Ages

Marvelous math lessons can be accomplished on many levels with multiple ages – in several ways. Take a recent morning of math manipulative fun from preschool to middle school. Kindergartener was creating ‘some went away’ stories with teddy bear counters. The teddy bears had chairs and were enjoying a movie at the movie theater. Well, her stories drew a crowd.

Mainly, some brothers. Little brother started stacking linking cubes. Great small motor skills for a four-year-old plus he was just having fun. Well, big brother joined in making several tall towers. Little brother had to make a size comparison. What started as math for Kindergartener ended up being a good time in math for our preschooler and middle-schooler too.

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Be sure to stop back by tomorrow – I’ll be sharing how we fit in those extra subjects like science, history and more.

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About Hodgepodgemom

Tricia faces a daily dose of chaos homeschooling five children. The biggest lesson she’s learned? At the end of the day – when the dishes are put away and the children are tucked in bed – truly what matters is each child’s relationship with the Lord. Raising children is a God-given privilege and, folks, the time is short.

Your post made me a little teary this morning….remembering back to when I had all four of my children homeschooling. The photo of your daughter reading aloud to your youngest is so sweet and reminds of all the days we had reading together on the sofa. Treasures.

I saw in a linked review to this page that you use and love Alphaphonics. I have heard some great things about Alphaphonics before reading your review and now I’m even more interested! I have a huge hang up, however on the font choice used in the book. I really don’t like how the book prints especially the lowercase letters a, t, and g. It just seems like it would cause frustration with a child when you are teaching then to read letters that look one way and then turn around and have them write those letters a different way. Have you noticed this to be a problem at all?

Rawney – now that we are are teaching child #5 to read with the slow and steady approach to Alphaphonics, I can honestly say that that has never come up. We just keep on reading and reading and moving forward. None of our children have expressed frustration. Hope that helps!